Page 24 of Love Bites
Chapter Eight
Talon and his partner, a currently red-headed vampire called Aldrich, knelt in front of their sire. It was the position they were expected to take any time they received new orders. Talon didn't like it, but he had no choice. This was the way things were. Their sire, Zenon, controlled this district, and he controlled them. Literally. If there was anything Talon didn't want to do, Zenon could compel him to do it with nothing more than his voice. A sort of power that all sires held over the vampires they'd turned.
It made disputing orders rather pointless.
"Your job tonight is to take care of this individual." Zenon, held up a picture that had an image of a middle-aged man and his name written on top of it. Arthur Middleton.
Take careusually meant kill. Neither Talon nor his partner asked why. The why was none of their concerns.
"Where will we find him?" Aldrich asked.
"He likes to spend his evening at the casino on Main Street. Wait for him to come out, then strike."
Aldrich and Talon both nodded. It was an easy enough objective. Tonight was going to be a night like any other. They would likely finish their job without much trouble and then wind up at the bar after to kick back.
"You are dismissed."
Talon rose and left Zenon's office, or as he liked to call it in his head, his throne room. It was in the basement of theCase Confidencelaw firm. A law firm that Zenon owned, of course. The elevator didn't take you down to this part of the building unless you punched in the right combination of floor numbers in the right order.
"I can't wait to get this over with," Aldrich said, following behind Talon. "I hope he tastes decent. It was such a waste last time we got to drink live blood and it wasn't even good. People need to take better care of themselves."
Talon let his partner ramble, offering only a nod of the head. He doubted that their target tonight could hold a candle to that odd human he'd met at the bar the month before. It had beenweeksand Talon still couldn't get that taste out of his mind. Talon had never been a blood-snob. Not until he'd hadCollin'sblood, in any case. When he remembered how warm and rich it had been, how hard it had been to stop drinking in time... everything else tasted like a cheap imitation in comparison.
But Collin had been different. There'd been somethingabouthim that instantly alerted Talon to his presence, and not only Talon either.
There'd been that werewolf too. If it hadn't been for the ruddy dog, Talon would have been happy to keep his distance. He knew to trust his instincts, and he'd sensed that getting involved with the kid would lead to messy situations.
He'd had no idea justhowmessy, though.
At first, he'd considered bringing it up with the elders, tell them that there was a human out there who seemed to be able to resist memory manipulation, but that idea had seemed foolish, even before he could put his finger on why, so he'd held off. Now he was glad for it. The elders would have likely ordered Collin dead, and that would have been a waste after everything Talon had already gone through to keep him safe. No, Collin shouldn’t die. He was too interesting to die, and there were so few interesting humans out there. In his fifty years of being a vampire, Talon hadn't met many.
He'd also never met anyone who could unlock his memories.
Memories he hadn't even known werethereanymore. He'd been told they were lost in the transformation, along with his human soul, and it had seemed fitting that his memories of another life would be gone with his death. The first few months, he'd wondered about his prior existence as human, but he'd quickly realized that it was better not to know.
It was easier to kill humans when you didn't consider yourself one of them.
Chapter Nine
Ifelt watched as I made my way from my car to the entrance of the bar, but I dismissed that feeling. I often felt watched these days. It was pure paranoia. One day I'd found myself glaring at a big bird circling overhead as if the animal kingdom was out to get me. Ridiculous.
Instead of sitting at the bar as I had last time, I chose one of the tables in the corner. From there, I could watch. I wasn't sure what I was looking for, but I was sure that I'd know when I saw it.
You're being stupid,I told myself.There's nothing weird going on here.
The place was just a regular club. Loud music, a thumping bass. Some people sat at the bar to drink or at one of the few tables, heads close together with their friends so they could talk to each other. Other people were dancing—or having a public make-out session that closely resembled dancing anyway. The whole scene was garnished with the smell of sweat, body spray, perfume and the fried food the table next to mine was having.
I swallowed, trying to push down that feeling of nausea beginning to rise in my stomach. I wasnotgoing to throw up now. I'd come here with a mission—to investigate!
This was where I'd come before my memory started going wonky. Something here had made me panic.
But what? Had I just had too much alcohol?
I looked in the direction of the bar again, but there was a couple dancing in front of me, limiting my view. The girl glanced my way, though, and for a second, I thought her eyes glittered as she smiled. It must have been make-up, but it looked so real that I was taken aback for a moment. How had she achieved this effect?
Before I could ask, the dancing pair moved away—and I quickly forgot about them as my eyes settled on someone coming in through the door.
The man I'd been dreaming about? The one I'd made up in my head?
